Teenagers who use marijuana are much more likely to develop psychotic disorders

A new study released last week found links between teens who use marijuana and an increased risk of dangerous mental health disorders.

University of Toronto researchers found that teens who used marijuana in some form in the past year were 11 times more likely to develop a psychotic disorder than teens who didn't. consumes. NBC News reported. The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine and released on Wednesday.

“When I see young people with psychotic symptoms, they almost always use a lot of cannabis,” said Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn, chair of the department of psychiatry at Indiana University and a child psychiatrist. “It would be unusual to see someone present to hospital with psychotic symptoms and not have smoked cannabis. »

This is the latest research highlighting harmful health problems associated with marijuana use during adolescence. Marijuana-related problems among adolescents included anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and suicidal ideation.

“I think there is enough evidence that we can make recommendations that adolescents probably should not use cannabis,” said Andre McDonald, the study's lead author. “If we can get teens to delay drinking until their brains develop a little more, I think that would be good for public health.”

Additionally, several studies in recent years have identified this link between marijuana use and harmful mental health problems. While some have suggested that such disorders might facilitate the need and desire to use marijuana rather than marijuana being an incitement to mental health problems, Hulvershorn dismissed this possibility, given the importance of the association of the results of the present study.

“The magnitude of the effect here is just hard to believe, because it is not related to cannabis,” Hulvershorn said.

The research also found that the link between psychosis and marijuana use only applied to adolescents, NBC News reported. People aged 20 to 33 who used marijuana were found to have no association with psychotic disorders. This finding appears to match revelations from previous research.

In an earlier study co-authored by Hulvershorn, researchers identified a link between “cannabis use in adolescence and mental health problems such as mental illness, depression, anxiety, and addiction.” Cannabis dependence is called cannabis use disorder (CUD). CUD is increasing and the risks of developing CUD peak during adolescence.

This study also found that marijuana use during adolescence comes with “an increased risk of addiction in general.”

Other doctors echoed the sentiments behind such findings.

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“There's something about this stage of brain development that we haven't yet fully characterized – where there is a window of time when cannabis use can increase the risk of psychosis,” said Dr. Kevin Gray, professor of psychiatry and director of addiction sciences. at the Medical University of South Carolina.

“This study really emphasizes delaying cannabis use until age 20, which could mitigate one of the potentially most serious risks,” said Gray, who was not not affiliated with the latest research.

Among the adolescents in the study who were hospitalized for psychotic disorders, about 83% reported having ever used marijuana.

“We keep seeing that this developmental window of adolescence is very high risk,” Gray said.